A case study of scientific computing with limited precision numbers: applying rescaling and baseline shifting techniques to a spectral Vlasov–Maxwell code

We have developed {\it SpectaVla}, a code that solves the multi-dimensional Vlasov–Maxwell equations using the spectral method described in G. L. Delzanno, J. Comp. Phys. \textbf{301}, 338 (2015). This code is designed to take advantage of a chip-scale tensor core optimized for 3D convolution with 8-bit fixed-point numbers. The code is benchmarked against theory on a number of fundamental plasma physics problems. We employ rescaling and baseline shifting techniques to ensure proper precision of the results when using 8-bit fixed-point numbers.